36 Responses

Well, I will just say that if it’s the above race, I am hoping for Nelson, no shock there, my second choice would be Weiss, and then Moseley… was underwhelmed with what he did as Budget chair and underwhelmed as well by his campaigning….

But next year might be a completely different story in terms of SG Elections. Look to Fall Elections to give better indication if online voting will be what GDIs have longed hoped it will be; in that it will enable the GDIs to increase voter turnout and through increasing turnout the ability to overcome the solid Greek vote. (I have my doubts, but fall will give a decent indication of it)

LOL. SKETCH huh? I think Josh is a great guy, and does a lot of good work for the students. He’ll make a great SBP someday, though I personally hope that is in 2008. As for, 2007, I think Mierley is the best person for the job, I’m not a big Moseley fan

In a perfect world:
1st. Nelson – Excellent track record, one hell of a speaker, and now getting screwed for doing what he viewed as moral. Also no fears of coercion or bias.
2nd. Mierley – Amazing and the most experienced by 6 months, but a little too caught up in the FBK-system. I’m afraid of coercion.
3rd. Moseley – Budget mistakes 1,2, and 3 made me feel bleh. What legislation does he have other than budget hearings? Not a bad guy though…fun to look at.
4th. Weiss – TOO YOUNG. Is no one else realizing that Joshua burst on to the scene 6 months ago? Give it some time to learn the ropes when aspiring for such a lofty job. Oh and that coercion thing.

Moseley at least has a year of experience (replacement senator March/April 05), Nelson was elected in Fall 04, and Mierley in Spring 04.

In reality though, FBK will run Moseley, and who knows who the Independents will run. I’ love to say Nelson, but I fear that at the end of the day he is still greek and that hurt this time around.

Speculation is so much fun, here goes not my $0.02, but half of my bank account:

Lauren Mierley way hotter than Ryan Moseley!! Josh Weiss is pretty hot too, but I concur that he is too young. Josh definitely is very approachable and I think, a very energetic campaigner. I think Josh’s youth might be a good thing, for those Indy kids seeking someone not so involved with FBK. Then again, Josh might probably make the very difficult decision that Bryson Ridgeway made when he decided to not run. I think NAGAS’s mentioned clusterfuck is anything but unavoidable.

Becca’s resignation only served to accelerate Kevin Reilly’s re-entry into Senate. Before that, Reilly would have had to wait until Moseley vacated his district B seat. But now that there are two seats, there need not be an R&A fight between who gets Moseley’s seat (Brett vs. Reilly)

It will be fun to watch if Allocations Committee plays musical chairs to readmit the former Chairman. Kevin’s re-entry into Senate will be totally legitimate, but if he suddenly becomes Allocations Chair again, that would be shady. Assuming commitee interviews are this weekend, then procedurally, there is not enough time for Reilly to be admitted into Senate, and then leave an empty Allocations seat so that Reilly can take it when he returns. Assuming the worst in all things “sketch”, expect a member of Allocations to resign or a bill amending the Senate Rules and Procedures increasing the amount of Allocations seats. I hope Laura gets confirmed as Allocations chair and that she sticks to the position until the end.

I don’t doubt for a second that Jesse Kirsch will become the new Budget Chair. So there will be two strong male Greek candidates for Student Body Treasurer in Spring 2007.

So in summary, and because far-off predictions are always very exciting:

Fall Senate President: Josh Weiss
Fall Senate Pro-Tempore: Robert Agrusa
(Judiciary is almost always the path to the Pro-Temp)

Nelson is the only apparent candidate for the indies at this point, but things change quickly. I don’t think the indies want to run another Greek for SBP, and he’s not a money guy, so SBVP is the only option. He may not be a candidate for anything come next Spring, who knows.

Weiss, Kirsch, and Reilly are young. Unless Reilly gets a chair, I don’t see how he has a chance.

Kirsch is a good budget guy, but I don’t think he makes a strong SBT candidate.

Online voting won’t happen in the Fall, in my opinion.

Agrusa for Pro Temp in the Fall? If Nelson is re-elected, he keeps Judiciary. Make Agrusa Pro Temp and you open up Judiciary chair. Nelson will have tenure on everyone on the committee (other than Patrone, if he somehow sticks around) and be tied for tenure with Weiss and Agrusa. That means they need 2/3 of R&A to overturn tenure, which they may not have, depending what happens with party names and depending if the indies can pick up an MAL in the Fall. I would suspect Sam Green for Pro Temp.

I think we see tenure overturned for Budget chair after Moseley’s departure. I believe both Tanaz and Sam Green have tenure over Kirsch, but they’re also both already committee chairs, which makes it unlikely, in my opinion. But given the composition of R&A, whoever applies had better be very qualified — overturning tenure may not be such an easy task, unless the applicant is a real strong one.

Honestly, I adore Josh. I would love him to be president one day depending on his next few months as pro temp and then as president. He is an amazingly moderate guy–he is both fratty and arty-nerd. I can’t name many people who don’t like him outside of Unite exec. The problem I have with him is maybe imagined, but I think it’s a real fear. He was picked very early on (try soph year of HS) to be an SGer. Before Marc became politically dead, Josh was his boy. He is the youngest person to get tapped in recent FBK history. He has the smarts and personality to win anyone he speaks to and do amazing things from office. Now, is he going to do the right thing and make his own decisions or does he lack the confidence to not always rely on FBK orders? I really hope he does the former. Still, he has much wider appeal than Mos and is adored by the FBK set.

About Kirsch as budget chair: It takes a two-thirds vote to overturn tenure, which Tanaz and Sam have over Kirsch. Can that happen with the current R&A? Jesse, as a MAL, can’t vote for himself. I don’t know about Tanaz, but if Sam Green wants budget chair, it’s probably his by a 3-3 (4-3 if Pro Temp Weiss breaks the tie) vote to not overturn tenure. Sam as budget chair makes him a viable candidate for SBT. But yeah, I think we all know that Kirsch is the most qualified.

I totally disagree with anon 2 about Lauren Mierley being an SBT candidate. That girl will not and SHOULD NOT settle for anything less than SBP. SBT should have been hers this year.

For the indys–I forsee Ryan Nelson fitting on the ticket somewhere. Anonymous Coward, Nelson actually does have a significant financial background, outside of SG, so I actually wouldn’t rule him out as a SBT candidate, either. He’d make a great president…but it would be a tough call for the indys to run a greek president again.

Josh Weiss is a wonderful, and I hope he waits his turn rather than commit early politcal suicide.

#
Anonymous said,

March 29, 2006 @ 10:58 am

I’ve heard Reilly is actually applying for the district B seat and Allocations at the same time, this weekend.

—IMPOSSIBLE. He’d have to be confirmed by the senate before he can apply for a committee seat. I actually would not be shocked, however, if R&A elects to keep an allocations seat open rather than fill it. I don’t think even the Unite people on R&A would argue with that.

Well, it depends. Unite exec this past spring was a lot of people who are now pretty much done with SG, it appears. There is no official exec of the party now, but if you’re looking at independent leaders you have to mention names like Nikki Grant, Gavin Baker, Justin Bell, Sarah Badawi, and (I guess) Ryan Nelson. I’m not really sure which group the last anonymous was referring to.

I was referring to the infamous “A-team” when speaking about unite exec. I assumed that was who Rebel Jew was referring to when he/she said “I can’t name many people who don’t like him outside of Unite exec.”. I’ve never heard any of them ever say anything negative about Josh Weiss, but I suppose it is possible that I could be wrong.

hmmm if it does happen, it will look really shady. I’m going to have to disagree with Glenda on that one. Rules and Procedures IX.A.2.e states that

e. The Replacement and Agenda Committee shall nominate members to the other standing committees, and candidates for Senate replacement seats by the procedures outlined in Chapter 323 and 340 of the Student Body Statutes, and Article V of these Rules and Procedures.

So Reilly cannot be nominated to the Allocations committee unless he is a Senator. Technically he can be nominated if the replacement district B seat is approved before the replacement Allocations seats.

But still that would mean that Reilly would have to put false information in the committee application form, because it asks you to put your Senate seat and you have to sign the form affirming the truth of the statements in it.

If Reilly leaves the section blank, then the form is incomplete and technically Reilly is unelegible for an R&A interview for an Allocations seat. Or if Reilly puts “district B” in the form then:
– if there is exactly one applicant for the district B seat, OK.
– but if there are more than two applicants for the district B seat, then R&A CANNOT give the seat to Reilly without interviewing the additional candidates. R&A cannot “promise” the seat to Reilly so that he will be elegible for committee interviews.

So in conclusion, R&A cannot nominate Reilly to the committee because he is not a senator, and recommendations are made after the interviews, but before Senate confirms Reilly as district B.

The thing that Senate CAN DO is to approve Reilly as District B next Tuesday and leave one Allocations seat open. The Rules do allow Senate to post-pone committee nominations for one week, so instead of approving as a bloc, the other committee nominations should be accepted and then table the Allocations nominations until next next Tuesday. But that would look really shady.

THEREFORE BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED::::::

There is no clean way for Reilly to become a member of Allocations by next week’s Senate meeting.

It seems likely, if R&A chose not to recommend for Allocations, that someone would nominate from the floor one of the other applicants (which I imagine will be many). To vote down a floor nomination for an open seat would look extremely shady, in my opinion. Theta Chi waits its turn, in my view.

RE: Unite exec not liking JW.
Knowing both sides well, I can say that they respect JW a lot and think he’s a good person and are even friends with him. However, there was little love over the white house incident. maybe they don’t care anymore, but it was a big deal at the time and had some people ready to take action.

RE: Marc
Yeah, he was Unite this time around, more out of personal reasons than FBK reasons. Because of that, he is virtually politically dead in the FBK power structure. I wasn’t even really referencing his involvement in this election, but more commenting on his support of JW since he pledged AEPi (for pretty good reasons, the kid is incredible.)

Now that you mention it is anyone pursuing Josh’s false police report re: the white house incident? I don’t want the kid to go to jail or anythin but calling the cops was low. 4 kids got detained and 1 got arrested.

Swamp had a barbeque next door the very next day (courtesy of ex-Swampie Nelson) and rumor has it both involved underage drinking funded by party money. I CAN’T PROVE THIS (like I really have to) so don’t go crazy saying I am slinging accusations around.

Unite knew about a party and didn’t blow the whistle. Josh knew about a party and did blow the whistle.

I would like to point out that according to statutes approving someone for a replacement seat and a committee seat is legal. Also, Glenda has said it has been done several times in the past. Who knows better then Glenda? Reilly is a former committee Chair, therefor who is more qualified then him to fill an allocations committee position? I hope he get’s the B seat and I hope he gets back on Allocations. He did a lot of good for that committee and the student body needs him.

Actually, I remember the majority doing the Reilly thing in the past, much like Glenda remembers. It’s kinda shady, especially since most Senators never get a committee seat, to give it to someone who isn’t a Senator yet, but given how rare it is for the Senate to overrule the R&A committee, it’s not completely dishonest.

After all, they could just hold an Allocations seat open or force someone to resign from it, and put Reilly in the next week. It’s more time efficient to do the slightly more shady thing.

Which statute says that it is legal for non-senators to apply to committee seats? Senate Rules and Procedures states that R&A may nominate “members” (I take that to mean Senators) to standing committees.
Virgil, by all means apply to the committee seats.

I assume its because by the time we get to that part of the agenda where R&A makes their official recommendation for Allocations, the recommendation for the District B seat will have already been approved and Reilly will be sworn in.

I don’t know all about procedure, but I would sayhow can the committee rec. someone who isn’t a member yet. I mean what happens if you reject their recommendation (i know that won’t happen, but that’s why you don’t recommend someone who isn’t a member yet.

I hate to tell all of you this, but it is perfectly legal to nominate Kevin Reilly for the Allocations seat so long as he is nominated for the replacement seat. First step, R&A votes on the District B reccomendations, next R&A votes on all the committee reccomendations. Now, the senate hears these reccomendations. First the Senate votes on the Replacement Seat and then on the Committee Seats. Now if Reilly for some reason is reccomended for both the District B seat and the Allocations Seat and for some other reason doesn’t gain the District B seat on the floor of the Senate, the Allocations Seat he was reccomended for will either reamin open for another week or will be filled by nomination from the floor from the other applicants for the seat. The choice of which of these options to pursue is completely up to the Senate and depends upon the motions on the floor. The reason behind this is because R&A will be nominating a member pending Reilly’s approval on the floor. If any individual applies for an open seat, they are able to apply for any open committee seat at the same time. This has been done for both the majority and minority parties by the Senate throughout history. Now please give up your inane pursiut of some form of accusation upon people who are doing their best to serve the student body. I know it is hard for all of you to believe, but even the “evil” majority party actually cares about the student body and is trying to do things to improve their lives. In many ways the majority party is doing much more for the student body than the “heroic” minority. Instead of being focused on fighting for the next position or some form of title and whining and complaining and calling foul when not able to achieve something, many of these individuals are out attempting to change something for the students, whether they have a title or not. Many of the senators in the majority party do not get a committee seat ro do not get a chair or even do not get reslated, but these people are not crying and complaining, they are trying to do something to change students’ lives. Take for example Shannyn Schott, she did not get reslated and only sat on Judiciary, but that has not stopped her from trying to work on the cabinet restructuring even after her term ended. Finally, please stop whining and complaining about your inability to get involved and go out there and try and do something for the student body as well. Then whether you have a title and position or not, you will be doing what you claim to want to do: helping the students.

ummm… really I don’t care if it has been done in the past, it smells of dueshyness and I supported the majority party so no this is not the minority party whining here.

I won’t claim it prevents people from getting into positions, I actually had my opportunity to help the students, i am happy with what I accomplished in my position here at UF. I have said a million times before there are numerous organizations out there and I would bet that together they make more of an impact on this campus than Student Senators, Cabinet Directors, Staffs, and Exec do. Unfortunately, most of you (SGers) don’t care.

Back to the current issue, the problem is the arrogance of the R+A committee both current and past to believe that the Senate should automatically confirm their choices. Hey I will admit that probably this guy is probably the most qualified for the position, but we all know what happens when we assume. Anon, look at the image that it portrays more than anything else. “Yeah, we know that you might not confirm him, but we don’t care”

As for helping the students, you have had since last Spring/Fall to make your issues come to light and force. Most major issues that were issues when Joe took office are still issues. Why? Are you going to tell me that the minority party was that strong with tier whole 15 seats?

Finally, if title and position mean nothing, why do the “majority” people lust so much after them?

Gatorman: As a member of R&A, I don’t have any expectation that the Senate will confirm our committee’s recommendations. In fact, I hoped they wouldn’t approve Robert Agrusa for Judiciary chair, as I’ve said. And I don’t agree with all our recommendations this week — within a day or two, I’ll post my voting record on my site and let people see what I think. I don’t think it’s arrogance on R&A’s part — but R&A is controlled by the majority party, so they don’t expect very often to be overturned.

With that said, I think this “non-senators applying for committee seats” is a loophole that should be resolved one way or the other. It’s a grey area now — let’s revise the Rules & Procedures so we know for sure whether it’s legal or not. I don’t think it should be legal, but mainly I want to see the question resolved. I don’t think Glenda’s memory resolves the question; I’m not sure a SG Supreme Court opinion would help much either. Let’s just revise the Rules & Procedures and settle the question.

Regarding Reilly specifically — and I know I’m not making any friends by commenting on these blogs but I feel it’s my responsibility to communicate openly what I’m doing in my constituents’ names — I think he’s the best candidate for the District B seat, but I think a (past or present) off-campus resident could best represent the total concerns of the district (where 4 of the 5 current Senators live on Fraternity Row, IIRC) — i.e. Gordon Owen or Rosemarie Clouston. That’s what I said in R&A tonight, and when the vote to nominate Reilly came, I voted against recommending — even though I think he’s the strongest candidate overall, I like him and I told him he should apply.

Now, was it strange that both Kevin and Gordon applied for committee seats as non-Senators? Yes. Could the recommendation be overturned on the floor? Yes. Do I think it’s likely? No. And in this case — given that we conducted 10 hours of interviews and 2 hours of deliberation — although I don’t agree with all of our recommendations, I feel they’re pretty good recommendations on the whole.

For the record, while I voted against recommend Reilly for the district seat, I voted to recommend him for a seat on Allocations. As I said, I disagree with the practice, but I’m not sure it’s illegal, and I’m not going to fight something if I don’t even know if it’s illegal. In this case, I think he’s the best candidate to serve on the committee, and he has tenure besides. So hopefully we revise Rules & Procedures to clarify the situation — but that’s the way I think we should deal with the situation, not accuse the committee of arrogance.

As an aside, on the note about organizations: I’m with you. Student organizations probably accomplish more than all of SG. With that said, much of the work that orgs do is funded by or otherwise supported or facilitated by SG. And many of the people in SG do their work thanks to experience gained in student organizations. So it’s kind of hard to separate the two. Additionally, I think individuals have a lot to do with the calculation. An RA may prevent her resident from committing suicide, while a Senator and committee member shows up once a week and doesn’t speak. Obviously the “lesser” RA has had a much greater positive impact than the Senator. But another Senator may research, write, and pass legislation that creates suicide-awareness training for RAs, which results in the cumulative prevent of many more suicides. (This is just a hypothetical example.) In that case, the hard work of one Senator — supported by the people who helped him create the bill — has a much broader, longer-lasting effect than one RA. Obviously most campus issues aren’t quantified in lives, but you see what I mean.

thanks for the nice comment anonymous! 😉 there is always something good to be done for the student body, and anyone can do it. Just go hang out on the third floor and ask what you can do to help! P.S. I love kevin reilly and i hope senate approves the recommendations because he is a great senator.

I’m the “angry” anon from above. But what I was fussing about is that I still think Senate is breaking its own rules by accepting Kevin Reilly’s nomination for the Allocations seat. Just because it has been a precedent before doesn’t mean that it should still be done. What I would recommend is that the rules are amended.
For example, one new senator can write a simple replacement to the rules and procedures to clear up this process in the future.

Rules and Procedures IX.A.2.e states that

e. The Replacement and Agenda Committee shall nominate members to the other standing committees, and candidates for Senate replacement seats by the

Could be split into two separate cases as follows:

e. The Replacement and Agenda Committee shall nominate candidates for Senate replacement seats.
f. The Replacement and Agenda Committee shall also nominate current Senators and recommended replacement senators to the other standing committees.
g. The candidate replacement process shall observe the procedures outlined in Chapter 323 and 340 of the Student Body Statutes, and Article V of these Rules and Procedures.

This would clear up the confusion regarding the legality of the admission.

I do support Kevin Reilly for the district B seat and for the Allocations committee membership. I didn’t listen to the other replacement seat interviews, but still Reilly’s record is amazing. He is a very good representative of the student body and has done a fantastic job in Senate.

I just started this discussion because I am adamant that the rules be followed. Since they are unclear, they should be amended and I proposed a recommendation above.

GO GATORS!!
Pedro B. Morales
Former Graduate Senator

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